Dawandi

It was like going back into another age. We had not expected to
run into an old-fashioned town crier beating his drum and making 'official'
announcements to the public in the 21st century. But there he was, doing
precisely that. We were driving on the
Pune-Solapur highway when we heard him and stopped, then saw him delivering his
message aloud between rhythmic beats:

‘‘Listen
O Listen…

Tomorrow
morning at half past nine

At the
Chandan Nagar gram panchayatoffice

The big
village meeting [gram sabha]

Is in
the morning, at half past nine sharp!’’

Village or town criers were fairly common in India in the
past. A crier beats a drum to catch everyone's attention and, when he has that,
delivers the message of the day.

In this case, Tanaji Kailas Kadam announced that the gram panchayat meeting would be held the next morning at 9.30 a.m. He told us
this was for Lamboti village in Mohol block of Solapur district .

The message can sometimes be about the arrival of kerosene or
provisions at the local ration shop, a meeting to resolve a dispute, or maybe to
auction off a property.

Though this art and occupation is gradually vanishing, it exists
in parts of the country even now. Tanaji is an agricultural labourer who is
also hired as a dawandi, a public announcer, by the village panchayat. (In
Marathi, that word means both announcer and announcement). He earns a mere Rs.
300 per month for this work. “For every announcement,” he says, “I go to
different spots in the village about 15 to 20 times over two days to spread the
message.”

Traditionally and typically, this role was assigned, often
forcibly in the past, to Dalits. In the obnoxious world of caste, only an
‘untouchable’ could beat on the skin of the 'sacred' cow. Many drummers in
India even now are from Dalit communities. They also perform at funerals and
other events, even weddings.

Tanaji
made the announcement about the gram
sabha outside a small restaurant along the highway where some villagers and
travellers had stopped for refreshments. As he went off to the next spot for his
dawandi, we raced off in our car to
an appointment in Osmanabad for which we were really late.